COLONEL, A GOLDEN retriever, helped a near-drowning victim wake from her coma. “Colonel had
popped up on the chair next to her wheelchair, and
he all of a sudden burped. The girl started laughing,
which was her first response to outside stimuli,”
says Costco member Susan Daynes, president of
the board of directors for Salt Lake City–based
Intermountain Therapy Animals, founded in 1993,
who was visiting patients that day at the city’s Primary
Children’s Medical Center.

Animal-assisted therapy, which can include
cats, horses and llamas, as well as dogs, positively
affects the lives of patients, residents and students at
hospitals, nursing homes and schools in the United
States and other countries.

Although therapy animals are sometimes con-fused with service animals that alleviate their own-ers’ disabilities, therapy animals benefit differentpeople in different ways, says Costco member PaulaScott-Ginn, marketing coordinator for Bellevue,Washington–based Pet Partners.

Therapy in hospitals

“We know from a lot of research that stress
reduces your immune function and slows wound
healing, so anything we can do to reduce stress,
especially in someone in a hospital situation, is
extremely valuable,” says Dr. Brent Bauer, internal
medicine physician and director of the Department
of Internal Medicine’s Complementary and
Integrative Medicine Program at Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minnesota.

Animal-assisted therapy significantly reduces
anxiety levels in hospital patients with major
depression, according to a 2009 study in the
European Journal of Integrative Medicine. Additionally, a
2011 study in the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing
showed that chronic heart failure patients’ ambulation refusal rate decreased from 28 percent to 7. 2
percent when they were offered a chance to participate in canine-assisted ambulation (walking).

Janell Keider and her Sheltie–golden retriever
mix, Jenna, registered through Pet Partners, visits
patients at Children’s at Mission Hospital in Mission
Viejo, California. To encourage a child to get out of
bed and walk, Keider will attach a second leash to
the dog, letting the patient hold it. She says, “Jenna
will be right next to [the child], wagging her tail,
making eye contact.”

Below: Vera, and one of the residents atLearning Services in Riverton, Utah; far right:Rojo the llama visits special needs students inSpanish and life skill classes at Skyview HighSchool in Vancouver, Washington. C OURTESYSALLYSHIELDS,INTERMOUNTAINTHERAPYANIMALSIN TERMOUN TAIN THERAPY ANIMALS

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Left to right: Therapy dog
Diva visits with a patient
recovering from a car
accident; K- 9 comfort dog
Ruthie; Karen Burns,
assistant director of
Intermountain Therapy
Animals, reads to a student
with her rabbit, Clare, at
Lone Peak Elementary School
in Sandy, Utah; College
students receive comfort
from the Lutheran Church
Charities K- 9 Comfort Dogs
shortly after the Boston
Marathon Bombings.